The present invention relates to sport gloves or the like and more specifically to golf gloves.
An experienced or novice golfer must maintain complete control over the golf club before, during and after the swing and the ideal method is to keep the "feel" of the club by golfing barehanded, however, this becomes impractical due to perspiration, playing in humid climates, worn club grips, etc, therefore the usual means available to overcome these problems is the use of thin, tight fitting gloves.
In the past, gloves have been developed with deal with these problems such as Kamada of Japan in Pat. No. #4,514,861, Keim of Arizona in Pat. No. #4,590,625, and Bencrisutto in Pat. No. #4,752,075.
These and other patented gloves basically cover the entire hands of the golfer and do not allow any appreciable contact of the hand with the club.
"Feel", in golf language is virtually impossible to define. It is common knowledge that for a right-handed golfer, the right hand that grips the golf shaft is the power hand and the left hand, which is situated above the right hand on the golf club shaft, is the accuracy hand. There seems to be no end to what definitions determine the feel of the golf club shaft in the golfer's hands. For example, in the Mar. 1978 issue of Golf Magazine, the editors interviewed a dozen professional golfers as to what "feel" was to them. The report, which was reported on Page 118, gave many explanations as to what "feel" was. For example, the relationship between the hands and the brain, wherein the brain takes into account many factors, from the environment to a particular golfer's mental and physical state at the particular time the golf club is grasped.
Four of the golfers stated what we the inventors believe to be correct, namely that "feel" is defined as the golfer's sense of the golf club shaft in his or her hands and how the brain perceives the golf club in the golfer's hands. The sensory feed-back of pressure information from the hands to the brain allows the brain to make the decisions which then inform the golfer's muscles how to move or adjust the hands upon the golf club, until the brain determines that a correct "feel" is obtained. Pressure feed-back works on the deeper, unconscious level of awareness, as opposed to such sensory feed-back as pain and temperature.
In achieving this correct "feel", and in particular, the "feel" of the left hand on the club (for a right-handed golfer), the brain is relying on the specialized nerve sensors buried in the four fingers and the palm of the left hand. These pressure-sensitive nerve receptors are called "Pacinian bodies". The Pacinian bodies are connected to the brain by the ulnar and median nerves, which travel up the arm to the brain.
As the left hand grasps the golf club shaft, unequal pressure is felt by the Pacinian bodies in each of the four fingers and the palm of the hand because of the natural concave shape of the palm of the hand and the location of the fingers which connect to the palm. The palm of the hand, in its natural position, is slightly concave, generally referred to as having a concavity. The concavity deepens as the hand flexes as in grasping the golf club handle. Additionally, the palm of the hand is slightly elevated at the point the fingers connect. Accordingly, then, it is obvious that the fingers at opposite ends of the concavity will feel the greatest pressure on the straight club shaft lying across the palm, namely the index and the little finger, while the Pacinian bodies located on the two middle fingers, as well as the palm area, receive less stimulation. In fact, if the left hand were so situated on the golf club as to make substantially equal pressure feelings in each area of the fingers and in the palm, the hand would be deformed from its normal configuration. Clearly, if the accuracy hand is deformed, even though done unconsciously, in trying to grasp the club when making a swing, control of the swing is going to be greatly hampered, and could quite logically be accepted as the cause of golf being such a difficult game.
It is the belief of the inventor's that the present trend of golfers today to wear very tight gloves, is an attempt, unconscious or otherwise, to enhance "feel" by the very nature of being able to feel the glove on the hand.
Also Tom Armour in his book entitled "How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time," state's; "When the club is at that point where the fingers and the palm meets, the fingers can curl around the grip so the sensitive finger tips can communicate the feeling of a good swing to the rest of the player's nervous system" and he also emphasizes to "keep the last two fingers especially snug.
Obviously then, it is easy to see that "feel" of the golf club in the golfer's hand is very hard to define and just as hard to obtain.
It is the object of correcting this problem of obtaining a proper "feel", to which the subject invention is directed.